


Above

by romymars (purple_pyro)



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: fanon!shinra is so wrong so here's izaya fixing it, i reread x13 and it hurt me real deep, light novels verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-13
Updated: 2016-01-13
Packaged: 2018-05-13 19:51:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5715049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purple_pyro/pseuds/romymars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As his plan reaches its final steps, Orihara Izaya reflects upon the past, the present, the future, and the infuriating common thread.</p><p>LN-verse, x2 Ten spoilers (possibly x2 Ketsu?).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Above

**Author's Note:**

> So basically I've been comparing Izaya and Shinra to Huey and Elmer for too long. Birds of a fucked-up feather flock together. Do yourself a favor and buy the light novels, okay?

Izaya wondered how long it would be until someone noticed.

Not that he wanted them to. But surrounded by so many capable, intelligent people he found it almost suspicious that nobody had figured it out. Anyone who noticed the pattern was certain to bring it up, since it might look like a weakness at first glance. But as Izaya reached the last few stages of his goal, it was getting harder and harder to conceal, especially since the two were all but cause and effect.

Namie had multiple chances to catch him, though perhaps her tunnel vision focus on her little brother narrowed her point of view. She was too sharp not to be listening though. The Awakusu-kai didn't pay enough attention to him to monitor his plans, and not even Shiki spared the time to line up the facts. Kujiragi had given him quite a scare but ultimately missed, assuming it was more than coincidence in the first place. Adabashi was just a pawn and a foolish stalker to boot. Shingen had always been a complete wild card since the moment they met, though despite the man's nosiness it was ultimately unlikely. Nakura had the advantage of the full story but was too drowned in remorse to think about what he was being blackmailed into anymore. Perhaps the closest person to understanding the full scope of Izaya's power was Shizuo Heiwajima, as much as he hated to give the protozoan any credit, but he was too stupid to connect the dots. The only person who Izaya was sure was aware of it was Shinra, the only person who paid enough attention to notice. Maybe all it took to see it was a different vantage point, to be above and looking down instead of up. All of humanity was below Izaya for him to string along, but Shinra was so high up that they didn't even register.

Yet somehow, while he was so untouchably above them all, Shinra seemed to blend into the humans below. It was hilariously accidental but somehow quite seamless, the way he'd open his apartment door to anyone with the friendliest smile. Damn that smile, ever-present and so infinitely pleased with life. It wasn't the grin of a friend eager to help but the simper of a little boy studying ants on the sidewalk. Was all the endless cheer and surface-level immaturity really enough to mask his cruelty? Izaya doubted even Celty knew the full extent of it, how morality was abstract, unimportant, irrelevant to him. Shinra's very thought process, his every trivial decision rested upon whether or not it would keep her by his side. And if it held her captive, futilely searching for her head for twenty years, that worked too. 

Izaya agreed; Celty could never be allowed to get her head back. His plan required her to stay in Ikebukuro almost as much as it required her head. He needed her to continue to be the elusive headless rider, to love Shinra and be loved by him. More correctly, Izaya needed her to keep Shinra the same as ever. It was vital that he stay the independent constant, the fixed point Izaya could set his sights on. The doctor would never fall from his tier as long as Celty stayed headless, because if she got what she wanted, she would win, and Shinra would lose, and she would leave, and Shinra would break, and that was an outcome Izaya could never allow. After all, what was there to reach for when there was no sky? How can one rise to be king when there is no hierarchy to climb? Shinra was the measuring stick that Izaya set his sights to. So no matter the plan, the tide of chaos, the shift of the city, Shinra could never change. The man usually didn't, being as fastidious and uncompromising as Izaya himself, but relying on that had nearly ruined ten years's worth of work just a few hours ago.

He'd put too much focus on the stepping stone instead of the shoreline and almost fallen into the river. Clueing Celty in on her head had been entertaining until Izaya realized just what could've happened. He knew there was a possibility she'd confront him, and though she hadn't, she'd been given the chance. Laughter was one of Izaya's stock emotions along with various smiles and sneers, and he guessed that it was just the one he'd defaulted to. Laughing, because it was easier than admitting that he'd come so close to destroying absolutely everything on a whim.

His knuckles were bruising around his rings from punching that lamppost.


End file.
